Bulky goods

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As bulky goods such were postal parcels and postal matter referred to the unusually take up much room, not let good package with other packages or had to be treated with special care during transport. Swiss Post charged a surcharge for larger space requirements or extra work during loading.

history

The news about bulky goods surcharges in earlier times is sparse. In the 18th century , the Imperial Post Office operated by the Thurn und Taxis "valued large and long but light parcels according to proportion". The Bavarian Post rose from 1808 to 1847 for bulky packages depending on the ratio of the space that they occupied a quarter or half the normal fee rate more. However, bulky goods surcharges do not seem to have been common practice.

The surcharge for bulky parcels was only included in the fee schedule of the Reichspost through Section 1 of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Postal Taxation in the Territories of the German Reich of October 28, 1871. Bavaria did not introduce the surcharge for its internal traffic at that time. Bulky goods were initially declared to be all packages that exceeded 1½ m in any dimension or exceeded 1 m in one dimension and ½ m in another and weighed less than 10 kg or that could not be comfortably loaded with other packages (prams, furniture) or required particularly careful handling (hatching eggs). In 1917, the bulky goods regulations were tightened and extended to packages whose overall dimensions (height, width, length) exceeded 1½ m and weighed 5 kg or less.

From 1874 to 1920 a maximum of 50% of the normal fee was charged as a fee surcharge, in the changing tariffs of the following years sometimes 100%, sometimes no surcharge at all. In 1933 the surcharge fell to 50% and has been maintained at this level since then.

The decision about treating a shipment as bulky goods is made by the posting post office. External marking "Sp" with blue pencil on the parcel and parcel card ; in the case of consignments that have to be treated as bulky goods due to their content, stick 6 × 9 cm yellow bulky goods labels on the consignment.

foreign countries

According to the postal parcel agreement, it was left to the postal administrations whether they wanted to allow bulky goods or not. The dispatch of bulky goods to many countries was permitted before the war in 1939/45, but was discontinued during the war. It was not until August 10, 1951 that the approval of bulky parcels to various European countries was released again. Whether or not parcels to foreign countries were to be regarded as bulky could be seen for the German transport route in accordance with the domestic regulations, for the foreign transport route in accordance with the parcel post book (Part A § 3) and the fee table for parcels to foreign countries. Identification of the parcel card with the noticeable “Colis encombrant” or “Colis fragile”.

literature